Since February, a delivery fee disclosure system has been implemented through the Korean National Council of Consumer Organization. Since the government saw delivery fees as the cause of the increase in food service prices, they announced a plan to lower the delivery fees by implementing this system. However, the delivery fee disclosure system, which has been followed out in recent months, has been criticized for not being effective at bringing positive effects, and many people started arguing for the abolishment of the system. In particular, the fact that the delivery fee disclosure system didn’t have proper understanding of the delivery industry, and is not a solution to the root problem, made people argue against its execution.

       Currently in Korea, the maximum delivery fee in some areas is close to 10,000 won, and is a burden to many consumers. The basic delivery fee in Seoul is 4,000 won to 5,000 won, so having to pay as much as 10,000 won for a single delivery is not an unrealistic story. Now, there are few restaurants that directly hire delivery men to deliver as there were in the past, and most food service businesses are using delivery platforms that can handle multiple orders. In this situation, the delivery fee disclosure system was implemented to help the consumers get a fair look at the price and to get a chance to compare them. To help the consumers, the delivery fee disclosure system not only showed the fee of delivery apps, but also showed minimum order amount, the difference in the order method, and attempted to provoke competition for price reduction. In fact, in a survey conducted in February, it was found that there was a difference of up to 5,500 won between the three main delivery apps over two days under the same conditions. However, although the delivery fee disclosure system was implemented for the purpose of stabilizing delivery costs, questions can be raised as to whether it is really effective.

       First of all, it can be seen that the delivery fee disclosure system carried on in recent months didn’t have a proper understanding and investigation of the delivery industry. The delivery fee disclosure system investigates and compares the delivery costs between four main delivery platforms, 'Baemin’, 'Baemin One', 'Coupang Eats', and 'Yogiyo'. However, since ‘Baemin One’ and ‘Coupang Eats’ are single delivery services, and ‘Baemin’ and ‘Yogiyo’ are bundled delivery services, a simple comparison can’t be a useful information for consumers. In the case of single delivery, the delivery rider makes fewer deliveries at the same time, so the delivery unit price is higher. So, consumers can mistakenly think that 'Coupang Eats' and ‘Baemin One’ are more expensive. In addition, the delivery fee disclosure system missed that the subject of the delivery tip setting was the restaurant and not the platform. The price of ‘delivery tip’ for each delivery platform shown in the delivery disclosure system is the total delivery price minus the delivery fee paid by the business owner. The purpose of the disclosure system to compare delivery costs between platforms, is not fully accurate as the delivery fees paid by the business owners are not being disclosed. Hence there is also criticism that the disclosure system will only induce unintended competition between the small restaurant owners, and not the platforms themselves. The delivery industry also criticized the Council of Consumer Organization for not conducting detailed investigations on delivery times. Currently, the delivery cost survey is limited to ‘weekend lunchtime’, which does not take into account the increase in delivery costs due to high demand at lunch or dinner time. In addition, announcing the delivery fee only once a month when it can fluctuate depending on the holidays or the rainy season, is far from providing useful information to consumers.

       Second, the delivery fee disclosure system did not consider the underlying reason for the recent increase in delivery costs. The recent increase in the delivery fee can be seen as because of shortage of riders due to a surge in delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. A representative of the delivery agency reported that the number of delivery orders increased by more than 50% compared to last year, but the number of riders increased by only 20%, showing that number of riders is insufficient compared to the number of orders. Therefore, there is an opinion that increasing the number of riders through improvement of the rider’s working conditions can be an essential solution in order to reduce delivery fees.

The government implemented a delivery fee disclosure system through Korean National Council of Consumer Organization to resolve the increase in delivery costs and the resulting rise in food prices. However, even now (as of October), eight months after the delivery fee disclosure system was implemented, it is showing lots of problems. This can be attributed to the fact that the system was implemented without properly investigating the delivery industry and that it is not a fundamental solution to the increase in delivery costs. Therefore, the government should abolish the delivery fee disclosure system, which causes competition among store owners rather than lowering the delivery fees themselves, and suggest other essential solutions to solve the soaring delivery costs.